Click to viewOh what a tangled web we weave. The local ABC affiliate in San Francisco is reporting a scandalous tale of misplaced nude photos, fraudulent laptop purchases, pornographic websites, and a Dell tech support guy—basically an internet soap opera.

The gist of the story, as ABC tells it, is this: Tara Fitzgerald, a single mother hailing from Sacramento, took some sexy photos of herself to send to her boyfriend, could not find them, and enlisted Dell tech support for help. (There will be many moments here which will test the limits of your credulity, but just try to stick with it). The Dell tech support guy, based out of India and named Riyaz Shaikh, proceeded to find the photos in question, download them, and ostensibly supply them to someone who created a pornographic website exclusively for their presentation.

Then, Fitzgerald claims, the tech support guy talked her into buying him a laptop so he could "work on her case" at home, helping her to remove the exploitative site. Then, on Valentines day (a particularly cruel detail), Shaikh told Fitzgerald that he had fallen in love with a young woman in Tennessee—another Dell tech support caller—and shortly thereafter, Fitzgerald discovered that Shaikh had purchased his new paramour Dell electronics using Fitzgerald's credit card number. That about brings us up to speed.

Just like with the real soap operas, one can never be sure who to trust in this story, with each fold in its fabric adding some new insight or making one reconsider one's allegiances. Fitzgerald seems like the victim, to be sure, but the chat transcripts flashed during the ABC News video betray a far deeper relationship between her and Shaikh than that of a mere support technician and customer. And while this isn't the first time someone's accused Dell tech support of impropriety, Shaikh hasn't had a chance to tell his side of the story. That will come, hopefully, in the next installment of The Young and the Restless and the Tech Support Guy. [ABC KGO via Consumerist via Jezebel]